Before Ronald Reagan’s resolute policy to press the inherent weakness of the Soviet system, his predecessor was forecasting the fall of the Berlin wall…years before it was even built. His secretary during the year of 1930-1931, Herman Beaty, recalling some of his many conversations with a very talkative Mr. Coolidge, noted in the series “The Real Calvin Coolidge” which ran from February through June 1935 of “Good Housekeeping” magazine:

” ‘Communism,’ he once commented, ‘will fail because what it attempts is against human nature. No man will provide me with food and other necessities of life unless he is gainer by it in some way.’ Concerning Russia’s propaganda among the youth of the country: ‘Their effort to proselyte among youth will fail. It may appear to succeed for quite a time–for years, perhaps. But as these young ones mature, they will be influenced by those same age-old currents. The result will be counter-revolution unless they recognize the danger and compromise in time.’ A keen student of social trends, he gave this opinion of Russian women in the tides of the new experiment: ‘Another ever-present danger to them is in the women. A woman is essentially a conservative. She wants to assure to the last degree protection for her children. The Soviets may appeal to the young girl but when she comes to bear children, she will abandon the fallacy of Communism as against their interests. Perhaps that explains the Soviet policy of taking children into state institutions in an effort to breed out gradually the urge of mother-love.’ ”

Quite a set of insights from a President who never said anything, never accomplished much in public life and is not worth remembering, at least according to self-appointed experts on history these days. Keep in mind these words were uttered in 1930 and 1931 and published twice in 1935 and again in 1960. To assert that Coolidge was unimaginative and without vision one has to censor these revealing observations. In the public “education” of young people today, Coolidge is missing for a reason. He indicts their attempt to indoctrinate in the advancement of socialism. An honest educator is not afraid of Mr. Coolidge, his insights here or how his principles can empower the next generation.